EXTRA: Cook is hardball w/ softball

The Cook County Board had serious issues (cremation instead of burial for the indigent, constitution of the Metra commuter rail board) on its agenda Wednesday.

Yet what was it that seemed to generate the most enthusiasm amongst the officials who represent Illinois’ largest county?

SOFTBALL. OR SHOULD I say a gold-colored cup filled with a ratty-looking, dinged up ball that was put on display as the “trophy” won by the Cook County softball team.

For the past three years, the team consisting of staffers from various county government agencies has played games against other government-inspired teams.

Such as the Illinois governor, the mayor and the City Council of Chicago (separate teams, you wouldn’t expect them to play together?). The city treasurer. Heck, even the Chicago-based staff of the federal government’s General Accounting Office.

County officials passed a resolution declaring themselves the champions for the third straight year of this competition – pointing out that in three seasons, they are undefeated.

AS IN 20-0 since 2011.

Not bad, although I wonder what would happen if Cook County were to take on one of the teams from the Illinois Legislature – where the state Senate and House of Representatives take each other on annually for some of the most intense sporting bragging rights ever claimed.

WHITE: Never could top Ernie Banks

Or if an Illinois secretary of state team containing one-time Chicago Cubs minor leaguer Jesse White himself (who’s more athletic at age 78 than most people are in their prime) were to take on the county ballplayers?

But it seems that the county will keep at their play – county Board President Toni Preckwinkle says she plans to take the field in 2014 along with her colleagues.

ALTHOUGH COUNTY COMMISSIONER Deborah Sims, D-Chicago, said she was skeptical anybody would be willing to play against Cook ever again.

PRECKWINKLE: Wants to play

“I’d advise you not to win so much, or nobody will want to play with you,” she quipped.

And Preckwinkle had the final say; claiming the cup on display at the county board meeting ought to be treated like the Stanley Cup (which goes on tour so the fans can see it, up close).

“Everybody gets this cup for an hour,” she snapped.

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EXTRA: A “role model” at something

The baseball season in Chicago is over for the year, and many of us would just as soon forget the godawful (but not surprising) Chicago Cubs performance, or the tantalizing, but ultimately annoying, time that the Chicago White Sox gave us.

PRECKWINKLE: Soon on a bubble-gum card?

Perhaps we should have been paying our attention to a different kind of bat-on-ball game this past year.

I’M REFERRING TO that local thing known as 16-inch softball, where it seems that one of the many leagues that played this past year is one that involves government  officials.

And in that athletic world, it seems that Cook County government rules in a way that White Sox fans can only dream of (and Cubs fans can’t even get that close).

The Cook County Board on Tuesday spent quite  a bit of time praising its softball team, which consisted of staffers who work for President Toni Preckwinkle, the county commissioners and other county government agencies.

They played in a league organized by the Chicago Sport and Social Club – one that consists of teams made up of government officials (although I wouldn’t put it past someone to suddenly offer Gordon Beckham a job on a government payroll – just to get him to play).

COUNTY BOARD MEMBERS spent quite a bit of time at their meeting Tuesday passing a self-congratulatory resolution, receiving a cup from the social club and even getting t-shirts made up for themselves to boast of their “accomplishment.”

For the record, the county government team won all eight of its games – including three victories over teams representing Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (by scores of 19-3, 17-0 and 14-2) and a championship game against a team representing Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

QUINN: Outscored a collective 50-5



Teams representing the City Council, city Treasurer Stephanie Neely and Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., were among the others that fell to the county this year.

County commissioner John Fritchey, D-Chicago, said that board Secretary Matthew DeLeon was the guy who did the grunt work of putting together a county softball team – one that even saw Preckwinkle herself get a few at-bats.

DELEON ALLEGEDLY IS looking into putting together a flag football team of county officials, although Preckwinkle said there’s no way she would take the field in that event.

“I know my limits,” she said.

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